Every year, the SSMU offers more and more services to the growing undergraduate population. The base fee, which has not been raised in nearly eight years, is now stretched very thin. This means that students with great ideas and the ambition to carry these ideas out are being turned down for lack of funds, and the services we currently offer are becoming increasingly harder to sustain.

We believe that McGill students deserve more from their student society: they deserve a thriving hub for student life, services to support their well-being, and the opportunities to develop skills that they can’t always learn in the classroom. It is important that the SSMU be able to maintain and improve student support in an environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable way.————————————————————————————-Join the yes committee here: http://goo.gl/forms/anOKpeZfipVOTE from January 27th – 29th here: ssmu.simplyvoting.com————————————————————————————–Where will my money be going? Approximately half of the membership fee increase of $5.50 per student per semester will go to addressing the priorities identified by students. Students across campus have noted that the SSMU needs to increase funding and support available to clubs and services, to expand mental health resources, and to improve the bookable space in the SSMU building. Some of the money will go to offset the increased costs at Gerts and the Nest, making it easier for students to run profitable events and fundraisers within the space. Finally, by increasing the number of the jobs that we can offer with a fair wage, the SSMU can not only provide a greater service to the McGill community but we can also increase the number of opportunities for students to develop skills and gain experience while studying.The other half of the membership fee increase will go towards maintaining current SSMU operations, including paying both student and permanent staff, keeping up with building maintenance, and restoring the annual transfer into the capital expenditure reserve fund. Without this fee increase, the SSMU would likely have to cut both permanent and student staff hours, executive portfolios, and more in order to maintain necessary building expenses and avoid the depletion of our capital reserves. This might also translate into increasing costs at Gerts and the Nest, reducing the services we are able to offer to student groups, and raising the costs of attending SSMU run events such as 4 Floors and Faculty Olympics.